Blue Devils rout Wake Forest in league opener

Saturday

DURHAM – Ryan Kelly’s first conference game of the season didn’t start well, with the Duke forward air-balling a 3 in the first 30 seconds of Saturday’s game against Wake Forest.

The rest of the time, even though he was limited by foul trouble, went much better for Kelly and top-ranked Duke.

Kelly scored 22 points – including 13 of Duke’s first 19 – to lead the Blue Devils past visiting Wake Forest 80-62 in the Atlantic Coast Conference opener for each team.

“Well it didn’t feel good right away, it slipped out of my hand and I air-balled the first one,” Kelly said with a laugh. “No, I’m just confident, I’ve put a lot of work into it in practice and when I get my open looks I shoot it with confidence.”

Teammate Seth Curry shared that confidence, also netting 22 points. Kelly (6-for-9, five 3s) and Curry (8-for-15, three 3s) were the main beneficiaries of point guard Quinn Cook’s dazzling 14 assist:one turnover effort.

After a back-and-forth opening three minutes, Duke (14-0) held the lead for good when Kelly knocked home his first 3 of the game with 16 minutes, 27 seconds left in the first half, giving the Blue Devils a 10-7 lead.

With that, a theme of open 3-pointers for Duke was established. In fact, the Blue Devils’ first make from inside the arc came with 9:03 left in the first half, after they had converted seven 3s.

Many of the open looks came because Wake Forest (7-6) was devoted to containing forward Mason Plumlee, often doubling him in the post. That left Kelly to find soft spots around the 3-point line.

“I think Ryan has the ability to score 20 points against anybody,” coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “I do think that when you’re trying to take Mason and Seth out of the game that it opens it up a little bit more for Ryan.”

Once Wake Forest was able to track Kelly and Curry, Plumlee scored 11 of his 13 points in the second half and also finished with 12 rebounds – his ninth double-double of the season. Rasheed Sulaimon also scored 12 points for the Blue Devils.

If not for foul trouble that limited Kelly to 18 minutes on the court, Krzyzewski said the senior could have been headed for a career day.

“He stepped up and he just had the openings and knocked them down,” Krzyzewski said of Kelly. “He was on his way to a 35 or 40-point game because we would have obviously kept calling his number. I like to do stuff like that.”

Instead, the senior fouled out with 7:20 left and one point shy of tying his career high, which he set last season, also against Wake Forest.

Wake Forest clawed back within respectability in the last 10 minutes, after Duke had expanded the lead to 67-42. A 3-pointer from Codi Miller-McIntyre with 6:25 left cut the deficit to 14 and the Demon Deacons stayed within less than 20 for the rest of the game.

The Demon Deacons’ move to get back into the game was predicated with Duke losing some of its sharpness, according to Curry.

“We just had a few breakdowns, they hit some 3s and we turned the ball over a few times,” Curry said. “Whenever you get a big lead like that, you can’t really relax. We kind of had some lulls there in the second half.”

But Wake Forest struggled to establish a scoring touch beyond the McKie / Harris combo, mostly because of foul trouble. Miller-McIntyre picked up a pair of early fouls, Tyler Cavanaugh fouled out and Thomas and Madison Jones each finished with four fouls.

The ever-optimistic coach Jeff Bzdelik said he was pleased with the start to his team’s conference slate, even though it came on the road against the No. 1 team.

“You probably think I’m crazy that when the ACC schedule came out, you have to go home and away with people. Why not come in here?” Bzdelik said, adding that he wanted an early test for his team.

Cook’s line, as described by Krzyzewski, was a “weird one.” That’s because Cook set the table for everyone else but himself, missing all 11 of his shots.

“Sometimes you can’t miss, sometimes you can’t make one,” Cook said. “Despite me going 0-for-11, I feel like I still played well.”

TIP-INS …:Kelly has scored 20 or more points against Wake Forest four games in row. He said he couldn’t think of any specific reasons for playing well against the Demon Deacons. … Cook’s 14:1 assist-to-turnover ratio matched Tommy Amaker’s 14:1 game against Miami in 1986. Only Bobby Hurley’s 15:1 game against North Carolina State in 1993 is better in Duke history. … Wake Forest out-rebounded Duke 43-35. … Harris and McKie were both 7-for-11 from the field. … Duke redshirt freshman Marshall Plumlee scored his first career points at the 10:39 mark of the second half.

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